U/U Gear - A reason why we cannot meld. (long post)

[syntaxlies]

Dunno if anyone else has touched note on this but Yoshi-P said himself the reason why U/U gear is not meldable, and it is not because you would have to level the craft yourself.

Their current model is that U/U gear surpasses basic crafted gear in strength, while crafted gear with materia melded into it will surpass the U/U gear. This is the idea they wish to stick to, and how they intend to balance the power of gear.

This is intended to keep crafters relevant to the game and economy. If all the top-end gear was U/U, nobody would need to craft. Likewise, if all the top-end gear is crafted, why do you need to farm bosses or dungeons for gear.

I think the best solution lies in dungeons and bosses dropping both U/U gear with stats superior to non-melded gear, as well as rare crafting materials from which high-end crafted gear can be made and then melded for the most high-power gear. This setup ends with PvE content remaining relevant, and crafters remaining relevant.

I will state my personal opinion that U/U gear does not need to be meldable due to the above model. It has its place as a stepping stone and trophy, but making it meldable essentially kills the market for crafters aside from them just melding materia... and that seems exceptionally counter-productive.

he also said tht was just the way it was for now and they'd keep an eye out on it and make changes if needed. Why have SH gear if its junk. waste of resources to even produce the SH's.

even if Sh gear was meldable crafted would still have the potential to be more powerful with x2 melds being a common occurrence.

SE is gonna need new customers and the MMO world in general wont like crafted being best in game and if nothing else will leave for that reason. Most people dont like spending hours of time farming vanity gear.

It would not kill the market for crafters. people would have to buy gear to farm SH gear. At the low drop rate a person could easily turn 5 full sets of gear into materia farming one item. that would stimulate the market not kill it.